Grant-Kohrs Ranch Historic Resource Study/Historic Structures Report/Cultural Resources Statement

A. The Ranch in 1937 [13]

Charles M. Wilson, the writer from Scribner's Magazine (his work, at least, appeared there), spotted that combination of old and new that characterized the ranch in 1937 when he visited it. He reported that upon his arrival he "found Con Warren working at mechanical impregnation of mares; insurance of colt crops by means of impersonal gadgets," [14] and noted further that Warren kept a microscope in the instrument cabinet in his shed. However, modernity and impersonality had not taken complete command of the Warren breeding operation, for

though ultramodern cattle breeders are beginning to use mechanical impregnation to multiply progeny of highly valuable herd bulls, Con Warren finds that healthy purebred cattle usually breed readily enough when left to their own devices. [15]

Warren obviously could work well with both new and traditional methods at the same time.

The physical appearance of the ranch reflected this as well. The article noted a "multitude of spick-and-span corrals down to the horsesheds," [16] and one of the illustrations showed freshly-painted barns, new fence posts, and a neat, almost military-like order to the area. Yet none of the older but still functional buildings had been torn down; nothing new for the sake of newness alone had been erected. The image was functional, with a blend of the old and new, but utility was the paramount concern.

Wilson remarked on Warren's activity as a whole:

The ranch is broadly typical of the cattle-country West. Here are 6200 acres of which 500 are put to crops. Thus about 90 per cent of the entire ranch is range, and at least half of this is valid range [range not requiring irrigation] in normal seasons [17]

Continuing, Wilson describes Con Warren's crops, grown to supplement the grasses available to his four types of operations—Belgian horses, registered Herefords, feeder (commercial) cattle, and the thirty or so Durhams and Guernseys he maintained to supply the Deer Lodge dairy with milk. [18] The breakdown listed about 200 acres of irrigated land in feed grains—oats, barley, and wheat. Twenty acres were in mangels, or mangel-wurzel, "a root crop similar to sugar beets which makes an excellent sweet feed for cattle." The remainder of the irrigated acreage was in Timothy and native hay. The crops grew in the irrigated fields on the west side of the ranch. [19]

The yearly routine of the ranch had changed somewhat from the older days of Kohrs and Bielenberg, but not that much. "As soon as the late snows thaw," [20] Warren's crew, no longer strictly cowboys but now better entitled "cowboy-farmer-utility man," began spring planting for the feed crops. Then the cattle were moved from the pastures they had grazed in during the long Montana winter to new ones. Cows about to calve went into a calving pasture close to facilities such as barns and sheds where they could be taken should the need arise. The mares about to foal, too, would be moved into pastures or holding areas where they would be nearer help, if needed. The commercial cattle had to be driven to corrals or pastures to be ready for sale.

With the arrival of the new generation of registered calves and colts, the needs of each of the valuable additions to the registered herds had to be met. Hand feeding was undertaken if needed, papers were filled out recording breed, strain, and heritage, and other myriad administrative tasks that registered animals demand were attended to. And all the while the routine feeding and animal husbandry continued. With the onset of the warmer spring weather, the painting, hammering, sawing, plumbing, and electrical work so endemic to ranching began.

In mid-summer came the cutting of hay, and depending on weather and moisture, the harvesting, transportation, and storage of feed crops. The hay had to be set up, the feeds mixed, and the barns, pens, and sheds made ready for the cold weather that would usually hit by early October. When time or circumstance permitted during the year, the animals had to be tested for disease and vaccinated to prevent the various medical problems common to horses and cattle. In late summer, as the time approached to transport and sell the feeder (commercial) cattle at market, and when the registered calves had grown old enough, branding would occur.

Wilson described the process:

Finally, there is branding, intermittently the gayest and most gruesome of cowboy chores. The ranch uses the same old CK (Con Kohrs) a brand which has ornamented Montana cowbrutes for three-quarters of a century. But branding is rid of most of its former brutality. In place of the old-time branding round-ups, . . . workmen lead the calves from the corral to the branding chutes. While the calf stands imprisoned in a narrow board-built cell, the brand is heated . . . then applied to the flank lightly enough to prevent damaging the leather. The calf bellows, plunges out to a snack of hay. [21]

Wilson also discussed the economic aspects of the ranch in 1937, noting that cattle then sold for about seventy or eighty dollars a head, while in 1932 they had sold for thirty to forty. The difference was not all profit, however, because feed prices and the cost of overhead, such as lumber, building materials, farm equipment, and livestock medicines, had about doubled since Warren took control of the ranch. Wages, too, had increased about twenty to forty percent. Placing an estimated $200,000 evaluation on the ranch then (1937), Wilson estimated gross profits at about $25,000, with a resulting net gain of about three percent of evaluation. His economic picture of the Conrad Kohrs Company ranch suggested that profits were not particularly large, but that the buildup from scratch that Warren had accomplished boded well for the future.

The article contained a statement outlining what Warren had done. Noting that, as manager for the company, Warren had enjoyed strong resources to draw upon, Wilson wrote:

He had made extensive sale of pure-bred strain bulls and heifers to ranches throughout Montana and other western states. He has become a significant pioneer in introducing a utility breed of thoroughbred horses (Belgians) in the West. He has, through extensive sale of those Belgians, supplied Montana with a creditable foundation of good horseflesh. He has maintained a modern livestock establishment, from a standpoint of equipment as well as management—one visited by livestock breeders and growers from all parts of the West. And he has instituted an active and well-managed farm as part of a landholding which had never been seriously farmed. Raised as a cattleman, he has actually become a practical farmer, and it is a transition of practical and timely significance. [22]

The tradition passed to Con Warren from his grandfather (and granduncle John Bielenberg) comprised in equal parts hard work and quality stock. He had kept the tradition alive, and had simultaneously maintained contact with the foremost elements of contemporary stock-raising as well.

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Historic Resource Study | Cultural Resources Statement | Historic Structure Report